Thorns
by flameleaf
Summary: Sora is a high school dropout who works at a flowershop that Marluxia goes to. Is there something behind that smirk and perfect pink hair that Sora can uncover? First chapter fic...terrible summary, but I think the story's ok. Check it out! :


Well hi there…this is another one. Don't know where it came from but here it is. Again, special thanks to .Love. I'm not sure why I'm writing so much Sora/Marluxia lately, but…whatever. I guess as long as I'm writing. Anyways, as always, reviews, critiques are always welcome. This is my first chapter fic. Im kinda excited. :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story. Not asprin, or sprite, or any Kingdom Hearts characters or anything else already claimed that is mentioned in the story. I own only the idea. But Nope. None of the characters or objects. I hope this will suffice for a disclaimer

Now, on to the story

-Sora POV-

"FUCK! I'M LATE!"

I jumped out of bed, grabbed some clean looking black jeans off of my floor, slipped them over my boxers and fished through the bottom of my closet for a t-shirt that didn't smell absolutely revolting. Finding a green t-shirt that fit the qualification, I pulled it over my semi-deflated brunette spikes and ran hurriedly to my bathroom.

Almost tripping over the multitude of random things that lay strewn across my floor, I stumbled to the sink, threw a harsh amount of frigid water on my face and re-gelled the spikes in my hair that looked completely downtrodden. I opened the medicine cabinet, and grabbed some asprin for his furiously pounding head. -"Gah, I knew I shouldn't have drank that much last night"- After swallowing that, I reached for one of my roommate's bottles of cologne or perfume…whatever - "Riku will never know."- and sprayed a generous amount onto the not quite clean clothes I had so quickly chosen, almost choking on the sweet flowery smell.

Not bothering to close the cabinet, I grabbed my wallet and phone, did a mental check- "check, check…SHIT! SHOES!"- and began frantically searching for convenient shoes. Finding some, not quite appropriate but very very convenient, rainbow furry house shoes, I shoved my feet into them, grabbed my keys, and was out the door with negative two minutes to be at work 4 blocks from the apartment.

I unlocked his bike, hopped onto the seat, and began furiously pedaling. My daily (usually late) ride to work was the time when I could reflect on things…such as how much I had seriously fucked up his life as of late. Sure. Things were good when I was a kid. I was a punk rock kid in Florida, with a nice life. I was completely taken care of money wise and had a supportive, caring, political family. I always kind of distanced himself from that though, taking on a more rejected form of organization…Hooray for how wonderful anarchy sounds when you're a teenager…and deciding to date the most flamboyant gay boy in the neighborhood-Riku Jameson. Maybe not the best thing to do. My parents disowned me when they found out their son was dating a total queen…sure they were fine with me being gay, as long as I was quiet about it; As long as it wouldn't have any negative affect on them. Riku was 18 and I was 17, and despite Riku's…um…flamboyancy, he was 2nd in the class, and graduated early. The second Riku got accepted to a good college in Chicago, I ran away and joined him there. The cold was a bit of a shock at first, but other than that, well, Riku adjusted well. A little too well. He met a sweet guy that could actually keep up with him and deal with his girly-ness, and promptly broke up with me. Which wasn't really a problem. I was starting to realize I was just dating Riku for the social "wtf" value anyways, and we remained good friends and roommates. But I didn't adjust near as well. I worked menial jobs for minimum wage while Riku thrived in school, and when Riku graduated with honors and decided to go into writing for a fashion magazine, I decided he would really have to get my life together.

It's been two years and that definitely hasn't happened yet.

I parked my bike around the back of the tiny flowershop wondering how long it would take for THIS business to close down like the last 2 restaurants and computer store I'd worked for. The bell jangled as I ran through the doors, hung over from partying with Riku, Roxas, and the boys last night and smelling of alcohol and what I was seriously starting to doubt was cologne.

"Well, well. Welcome to work Sora. Only 20 minutes late today. Better than last week, I suppose."

It was. My boss, Kairi, walked over to with my green apron and name tag, which I hurriedly put on mumbling a quick apology.

"Don't worry about it Sora. It's coming out of your paycheck."

She stopped for a second, lifted her nose, and sighed.

"Damn it Sora. I swear if you weren't Riku's friend…"

Wow…if I had a quarter for every time I heard that one. "I'd be fired instantly. I know"

She pulled some mints from her apron pocket and handed me the entire case.

"Eat all of them. You smell like alcohol and cologne. You're going to scare away the customers"

haha…that's if we ever actually got any customers.

Kairi turned on her heel and walked back to the back room to prepare some corsage, or kill some more flowers, whatever she did back there that I wasn't skilled or worthy enough to do. I ran my hands through my hair and went to my normal spot behind the counter, next to the cash register, preparing for another long day of doing absolutely nothing.

That's when he walked through the door.

Now I bet you're expecting some life changing moment, where eyes meet, and there's some magical instantaneous connection…yeah, that didn't happen.

But he was a customer. Possibly a paying customer. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that this man was totally fucking gorgeous. He had this bright pink, feathered hair that just begged to be made fun of, but the dangerous look in his burning blue eyes warned that if anyone did, they would be cut to shreds and cooked into a stew or something.

Kairi came out of the back room and started to yell at me.

"Sora, your break isn't until-…oh my God…a customer!"

She ran to the pink haired man's side asking what she could help him with, how great the weather was, how nice it was to see someone in the shop…standard excitement over someone actually coming in to give her money in exchange for her dying flowers.

Geez…and she was really worried about me scaring away the customers? I swallowed two of the breath mints just in case he did decide to buy something.

After enough of her incessant blabbering, the man held his perfectly manicured hands up and spoke in a rich, deep tone.

"Look lady. I didn't come here to listen to you talk. I came here to buy some flowers. I was actually in the market for some _beautiful_ flowers, but I'm obviously not in the right place for that. However, since I'm a bit rushed for time and you're the closest flowershop around, I'll take half a dozen of those red roses and give you a bit of advice."

Oh shit…this was freakin hilarious. The look on Kairi's face was priceless.

"You care too much for your flowers. They're drowning and that's why they die so quickly. Invest in good fertilizer, then water no more than twice a day."

He walked to a shaded corner of the store and continued

"Now _these_ flowers, in addition to having too much water, are being choked off from sunlight which means that they cant make any food for themselves. Its photosynthesis…that's what? Third grade science? Haha, well obviously you skipped one too many classes honey, and speaking of which, you smell like honeysuckle. Can't get them to grow I'm guessing. Probably because you don't have them growing on anything. Sell them on some small lattices, or if you don't have money for that, which judging by the looks of this place, you don't, so just use fence material. And a little home remedy for you, add a little bit of sprite in with some of your plants. Experiment with it. Some plants really benefit from having added sprite to the water they're already getting. But not too much. The only thing worse than drowning your plants in water is drowning them in sprite."

There was an awkward pause as Kairi's mouth hung open in a stunned silence. The man just stared at her. It took all I had not to bust out laughing.

"Well…are you going to get my flowers, or just stand there staring at me." He chuckled a little, which was kind of terrifying.

"Honey, I know I'm gorgeous, but like I said, I'm in a time crunch. I'd like to just purchase my flowers and leave."

Kairi just sort of nodded and walked to the roses. I considered flashing him a thumbs up while her back was turned, but his focus was solely on her.

"And I certainly hope you're going to put the stems of the roses in a bag full of water."

He spoke condescendingly, and Kairi was obviously still in a mild state of shock. I spoke up.

"That's done up here sir."

He chuckled again. "So says the bagboy with the upside down name tag and backwards shirt. You seriously couldn't get anyone better than this?" He pointed to me with a glossy lavender painted fingernail and I felt myself blushing a little. That's why the neckline of my shirt felt so tight.

Kairi just placed the roses on the counter and walked silently back into the back room, and the man just flipped his hair over his shoulder and walked up to me.

"Hi." He said with a mix of a grimace and a smirk. "I think you deserve to know that you smell like alcohol and Miss Dior perfume."

The man tugged at the sleeves of his grey hoodie before reaching into his back pocket and retrieving a black leather wallet, as I took the flowers and filled the protective bag with water.

"Well, how much are these shitty flowers going to cost me?"

"Oh…uh" I calculated in my head. "$7.50"

"hah, $1.25 a rose. At least you're somewhat fair with your prices. If it was over ten, I was just walking the hell out."

I gave a semi-appreciative laugh as I examined his appearance once more. His pale skin was more perfect than Riku's! There were no imperfections at all, and…wait…were his lips shimmering? And why was he just staring at me?

"This is the part where you take my money and give me the roses."

Snapping out of my reverie, I took the money (thank goodness the perfect amount. Not like we could give change) and handed over the flowers. He took them in his arm and held them as gently as a child, looking upon them with a hardened sweetness, and then turning his burning stare back to me.

"If you're competent enough, which I highly doubt, but I'll try anyways-Tell your boss that I'll be back in a week to make sure these flowers are taken better care of."

With another flip of his hair, the man turned and walked out of the store.

"um…Have a nice day!" I called after him, and Kairi peeked out of the back room.

"He's gone?"

"Yeah."

Kairi didn't say anything for a moment, then she reached into her pocket and gave me a twenty.

"Sora…I need you go to the store, find me some lattice, fertilizer, and sprite."

"Will twenty cover that?"

She sighed and looked down reaching for her money again, but she caught sight of my shoes

"What the-…no Sora. If it costs any more, you pay for it with your own money. And use your next freakin paycheck to buy some proper shoes."

And with that she pushed me out the door.

-**End ch. 1**-


End file.
